Thursday, September 8, 2016

Wisdom of the soap: Vote and Feel Good -- Sept. 8, 2016 column

A couple of election
seasons ago, I brought home an oversized bar of soap that read VOTE on one side
and FEEL GOOD on the other.

I put it in my guest
bath, mostly as a joke, and after the election it went into a drawer. I came
across the soap the other day and realized it had outlasted my enthusiasm for
voting.

Pulling the lever for president
has never seemed so much a duty and so little a pleasure.

In less than two
months, millions of Americans will stay home on Election Day. After the hoopla
of the 2016 primary campaign and amid tightening polls, many Americans won’t cast
ballots for any presidential candidate. We know this from experience.

Four years ago, about
58 percent of eligible voters – citizens 18 and older -- cast ballots in the
presidential election, lower than in both 2008 and 2004, an analysis by the
Bipartisan Policy Center found. And presidential races draw our biggest turnouts.

Voting long has been promoted
as the top item on good citizens’ to-do lists. Now, though, some commentators
say we should stop shaming people who don’t want to vote into doing so anyway.

In his new book,
“Writings on the Wall,” basketball legend and cultural critic Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar writes: “In the 2014 midterm elections, less than 37 percent of
eligible voters showed up, which left 144 million votes taking a pass on
democracy. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing.”

Best to leave nonvoting
slugs alone, he says.

“Voters who don’t want
to cast a ballot because they’re too lazy or uninformed should stay home,” he
writes.

In an interview on NPR,
he went a step further: “Ignorance is not something that lends itself to a
meaningful discussion. Some of these people really shouldn’t vote because they
don’t know what the issues are, and I think people that are, you know, voting
in the blind are doing a disservice to our country by not being better
informed.”

Abdul-Jabbar spoke
against Donald Trump at the Democratic National Convention in July, and, while
he didn’t mention Trump in his book or the radio interview, the clear
implication is that ignorant Trump voters should just stay home.

No matter how dangerous
we think a Trump – or a Hillary Clinton – presidency would be, telling voters
with whom we disagree to stay home is an arrogant stand on a slippery slope.

Anyone can look at
another voter and think he or she lacks the brainpower to cast an informed
ballot. It goes against the small-d democratic grain to discourage people from voting
simply because we think their choice of candidate proves they’re not smart
enough.

That brings us to the
age-old question of how to get voters engaged so they educate themselves on the
issues rather than falling for appeals based on anger and anxiety.

Abdul-Jabbar also says
we should stop encouraging people to vote out of civic duty but rather “show
them the wisdom of voting based on economic self-interest in order to give
themselves, their families and their communities more opportunities.”

Poor people would have
more clout if they voted in greater numbers, he says.

But many Trump voters
think they are voting in their economic self-interest.

Trump’s unorthodox
campaign brought voters into the system who felt ignored by Democrats and
Republicans. They believe this GOP nominee speaks for them when he promises to
bring back jobs and stop illegal immigration.

Whether he could deliver
on those promises is another story, but Trump has struck an emotional chord.

To boost voters’
intelligence, Abdul-Jabbar proposes a federal initiative to teach more about
critical thinking and logical fallacies in public schools. It’s an idea worth
considering – and a nonstarter in the current climate.

Until voters demand
more thoughtful, substantive discussions on issues, we’ll continue to have celebrity-driven
campaigns punctuated by amateur personality analyses, name calling and fear mongering.

And we’re left with the
choice – to vote or not. Once again, I’m putting out the soap to give my guests
and myself a nudge.